A former Indianapolis mortgage broker, who also worked as a clown and ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in the Indiana Senate, will be sentenced in August for his role in the production and distribution of tons of synthetic marijuana.

Doug Sloan, a former Indianapolis resident now living in Missouri, entered a guilty plea in May in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to federal drug and money laundering charges.

Sloan is the fourth Central Indiana man to plead guilty in connection with the far-flung drug ring that was based in the St. Louis area, but stretched from New York to California to China.

Robert Jaynes Jr., the pastor of a small fundamentalist church on the east side of Indianapolis, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April to 11½ years in prison for manufacturing more than 10 tons of the synthetic drug often called “spice” or “K2.” Prosecutors allege Jaynes engaged many of his church members in the illegal drug business that grossed more than $2 million.

Jaynes and Sloan worked together in the mortgage industry in the 1990s. Jaynes’ brother-in-law, Kirk Parsons of Indianapolis, also has pleaded guilty in the case and will be sentenced June 30.

The fourth Indianapolis man caught up in the drug case, Roger Upchurch, pleaded guilty in 2015 and forfeited more than $2 million in cash and other assets prosecutors say he obtained from his illegal activities, including a house, two cars and a pontoon boat.

Upchurch, a former bar and entertainment business owner who once sponsored a car in the Indianapolis 500, also is awaiting sentencing. As part of his plea, according to a statement from the DEA, Upchurch admitted being "a leading member of (an) international drug trafficking organization."

The fake marijuana was made in Indiana and at other sites across the U.S. by spraying chemicals obtained from China onto dried plant material. Makers routinely changed the chemical composition in a cat-and-mouse game in an attempt to stay ahead of laws banning the substances.

The finished product, which users smoked, was sold as incense or potpourri and labeled “not for human consumption.”

The federal cases that ensnared the Indianapolis men resulted in charges against more than a dozen others across the U.S. Many court documents in those cases remain sealed.

Charging documents filed in St. Louis, however, detail allegations that Sloan and his brother, Greg Sloan, were leaders of the ring that earned more than $18 million from making and selling the drug under names like Pirates Booty, Mad Hatter and Cloud 9.

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A fundamentalist preacher from Indianapolis used family and church members to make and distribute tons of synthetic marijuana, also known as spice, prosecutors say. Now, Robert Jaynes Jr. is heading to prison for 11-1/2 years.
Dwight Adams/IndyStar

Doug Sloan and David Neal of Carmel sold more than $2.2 million in spice, according to court documents. Neal died while in prison on the federal drug charges.

Sloan, who ran unsuccessfully as a Libertarian candidate for the District 31 seat in the Indiana Senate in 2002, will be sentenced August 25 in St. Louis.